Cess under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act cannot be validly collected without levying land revenue; previous rules invalidated, making current cess collections unauthorized.

JUDGMENT :

Ramesh Sinha, C.J.

1. Heard Mr. Balbir Singh, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. M.P.Devnath, Mr. Raja Sharma, Mr. Abhishek Anand and Ms. Aditi Parakh, learned counsel for the petitioners as well as Mr. Shashank Thakur, learned Deputy Advocate General for the State/respondents No. 1 to 4.

2. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks for the following relief(s):

“(a) to issue Writ of Certiorari and/or Writ in nature of Certiorari and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ, calling for entire records concerning the case from the possession of the Respondents for its kind perusal and declare & hold that in absence of levy & collection including payment of land revenue or rent under the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code, 1959, no Cess can be levied & collected from the Petitioner under of Section 3 & Section 4 of the CGUA, 2005 and/or;

(b) to issue Writ of Certiorari and/or Writ in nature of Certiorari and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ, calling for entire records concerning the case from the possession of the Respondents for its kind perusal and declare & hold that no levy and collection of Cesses, under of Section 3 & Section 4 of the CGUA, 2005, by auto debit or from advance deposits can be made & was required to be made from the Petitioner and/or;

(c) to issue Writ of Certiorari and/or Writ in nature of Certiorari and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ, calling for entire records concerning the case from the possession of the Respondents for its kind perusal and declare & hold that levy and collection of Cesses, under of Section 3 & Section 4 of the CGUA, 2005, from the Petitioner by the Respondents, has been made without authority of law and/or, (d) to issue Writ of Certiorari and/or Writ in nature of Certiorari and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ, calling for entire records concerning the case from the possession of the Respondents for its kind perusal and declare & hold that the Notification dated 27.12.2011 (at Annex. P/6) issued under Chhattisgarh Land under Mining Leases Quarry Leases Assessment Rules, 1987, for the entire period from 27.12.2011 to 31.1.2020, prior to its repeal by Notification of 31.1.2020, as invalid and non-est & thus not binding and/or, (e) to issue Writ of Mandamus and/or Writ in nature of Mandamus and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ directing the Respondents to forthwith stop levy & collection of Cesses, under of Section 3 & Section 4 of the CGUA, 2005, in any manner or by any mode, from the Petitioner and/or;

(f) to issue Writ of Mandamus and/or Writ in nature of Mandamus and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ directing the Respondents to credit back or refund the entire amount of both cesses collected from 16.4.2015 onwards and till date as well any amount of cesses that may get further collected/auto debited while generating Ravannas on-line, till final disposal of present petition in the interim period and/or; (g) to issue Writ of Mandamus and/or Writ in nature of Mandamus and/or any other similar/appropriate Writ directing the Respondents to continue issuing Ravannas on-line without insisting on payment of Cesses levied & collected under Section 3 & 4 of the of the CGUA, 2005 and/or;

(h) to pass any other relief/reliefs, which this Hon'ble Court may think fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case, with cost of the petition, may also please be granted to the Petitioner.”

3. The facts, in brief, as projec